249 Quotes by James Surowiecki

Meeting external deadlines is much harder than meeting internal ones. On the other hand, internal deadlines sometimes don’t feel real, and are therefore easy to evade.

The truth is that the United States doesn’t need, and shouldn’t have, a debt ceiling. Every other democratic country, with the exception of Denmark, does fine without one.

I do think to some extent multitasking is a way of fooling ourselves that we’re being exceptionally efficient.

Moviegoers love the intricacies of a crime all the more when it’s for a good cause.

When all is said and done, cheap gas is an illusion, because our reliance on gas creates a whole series of costs that aren’t factored in to the pump price – among them congestion, pollution, and increased risk of accidents.

From a social point of view, it’s beneficial that homeownership encourages commitment to a given town or city. But, from an economic point of view, it’s good for people to be able to leave places where there’s less work and move to places where there’s more.

You’ll sometimes hear from people that they actually do a better job of getting their work done when they have a lot of other obligations – in effect, it removes the possibility of procrastinating.

When Americans think of college these days, the first word that often comes to mind is ‘debt.’ And from ‘debt’ it’s just a short hop to other unpleasant words, like ‘payola,’ ‘kickback,’ and ‘bribery.’

Older people do a better job of managing their impulses, and so they’re better able to put off putting off.